The semi-annual Long Beach Comics Expo landed on May 11th with a substantial line-up of guests and also some smart choices in programming. Guests included Rich Avons, Joe Benitez, Brian Buccellato, Ale Garza, Joel Gomez, Ray-Anthony Height, Vince Hernandez, Drew Johnson, David Mack, Frank Mastromauro, Dustin Nguyen, Nei Ruffino and more, showing a strong representation in comics artists and a few colorists as well as a writer or two. Programming ranged from “Creating Awesome Female Characters” to focus panels on designing your own web series, writing animation, and “Marketing on a Shoe String Budget”.

For a small con, there’s plenty of ambition for growth at Long Beach, and though it welcomes a variety of pop culture guests, they seem to be keeping the comic in con on a regular basis. Friend of The Beat, pop culture photojournalist Michele Brittany was there to tell the tale in pictures for us good folks who couldn’t make it to the show:

Photo Credits: All photos in this article were taken by semi-professional photographer and pop culture scholar Michele Brittany. She’s an avid photographer of pop culture events. You can learn more about her photography and pop culture scholarship here.